Smith Fans Career High Eight as Mudcats Defeat Blue Rocks 2-1

ZEBULON, N.C. - Matt Smith totaled a career high eight strikeouts and combined with relievers J.T. Hintzen and Justin Topa to retire 18 straight batters to finish off Carolina's series clinching 2-1 victory versus the Blue Rocks on Monday night at Five County Stadium. Carolina scored both of its runs in the fourth on a game tying triple from Mario Feliciano and a go-ahead RBI single from Ryan Aguilar.
 

The Mudcats (16-16, 55-46) were originally down 1-0 in the game after the Blue Rocks (16-15, 60-40) took an early lead on a home run from Brewer Hicklen off Smith (W, 4-8, 3.25) in the first inning. Carolina then came back with two in the fourth off starter Kris Bubic on Feliciano's triple and Aguilar's single while taking their 2-1 lead in the game.
Wilmington's first inning home run ended up accounting for nearly all of the offense in the game for the Blue Rocks as Smith, Hintzen (H, 4) and Topa (S, 3) combined to allow just the one first inning run on three hits overall in the game. They also combined on just one walk and 10 strikeouts and finished the game with 18 straight outs from the fourth through the ninth.
Smith allowed all three of Wilmington's hits in the game, with two of those three coming in the first inning on a leadoff single from Blake Perkins and Hicklen's home run. Smith quickly erased Perkins off the bases by inducing a 3-6-3 double play, but then gave up Hicklen's home run to right. He then pitched around a leadoff double from Nick Pratto in the second and a leadoff walk of Hicklen in the fourth. Smith finished his start with six straight outs after the fourth inning walk and finished with a career high eight strikeouts, one walk and one run allowed on three hits. He also reached 72 pitches with 47 going for strikes.
Hintzen picked up right where Smith left off while retiring the side in order in the sixth and seventh innings. He retired six straight in all over his two-inning outing and finished with one strikeout while reaching 24 pitches (12 strikes).
Topa worked the final two frames for Carolina and, like Hintzen, retired all six he faced in consecutive order to finish off his third save. He also struck out one while reaching 30 pitches (19 strikes).
Carolina's two-run fourth, meanwhile, began with a leadoff walk from Tristen Lutz and continued with Feliciano's triple to right-center. The triple tied the game at 1-1 and was Feilciano's third of the season. Payton Henry followed with a walk, but Aguilar came through with a run scoring single to right to push across Feliciano and give Carolina a 2-1 lead. Feliciano's RBI triple accounted for his league leading 69th RBI. Aguilar's run scoring hit, meanwhile, brought across his 45th RBI.
Bubic (L, 3-2, 3.13) started for Wilmington and allowed both of Carolina's runs in the fourth while ending up with the loss. Bubic struck out two, walked four and allowed two runs on four hits in the loss. He was later followed by relievers Austin Lambright and Robert Garcia. Lambright allowed two hits and struck out two over an inning and 1/3 scoreless frames. Garcia then struck out three while pitching a scoreless eighth and ninth.
With the victory, Carolina ended up taking games one and two in the series while winning it, two games to one and finishing their six game home stand at 3-3. The Mudcats also pulled back to an even .500 in the second half while going to 16-16 in games since the All-Star break.
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